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Entries From Kilimanjaro 2-9-13

Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Wrap Up Their Safari at Tarangire National Park

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 21, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Today we visited Tarangire National Park, home to more elephants per square mile than any place on earth. No luck with the leopard or cheetah today, but we did see plenty of lions and elephants. We even managed to rescue another party who got their 4x4 stuck in the river. We’ll finish the trip off with one last night here in Africa listening to the sounds of nature in a tented camp that sits along the Tarangire River. The last three days have been a great way to relax after all the effort to climb Kili and everyone has had a great time. Tomorrow we’ll head back to Arusha and catch our long flights home.

Thanks for following!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Game viewing at the Ngorongoro Crater

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Today the team visited the famous 2 million year old Ngorongoro Crater. A steep walled caldera that is home to The Big 5. We only saw 4 today and are hoping to see the last (leopard) tomorrow. It’s quite surreal riding around in our Toyota Land Cruisers looking at all these beautiful animals in their natural habitat.

On the way back to our lodge we stopped off at a working Maasai village to take a look at their semi-nomadic lifestyle. 
Everyone is having a great time!

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Kilimanjaro: Safari to Lake Manyara

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 19, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Our first day on safari brought us to Lake Manyara. A small national park that borders Lake Manyara known for its tree climbing lions. The team spent about four hours driving around the park and saw an abundant amount of wildlife. Elephants (so close at time we could almost touch them), giraffe, zebra, hippos, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, hundreds of baboons and lots of other monkeys. Everyone had a great day and enjoyed just relaxing while taking in the views.

To top the day off we arrived at our home for the next two days at an amazing lodge called Ngorogoro Lodge.
The team just finished a wonderful meal and are off to bed.

Enjoying the icing on the cake, so to speak!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Relaxing Back at the Dik Dik Hotel

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 18, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Freshly showered and doing well!  Our team is safely off the mountain and enjoying a celebration dinner back at the Dik Dik Hotel.

Safari starts tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Summit!

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 17, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 19,340'

As planned we were up early and started climbing just before 1 a.m. The weather was clear, calm and not too chilly. Surprisingly we were one of the last groups out of camp this morning and thankfully had little traffic issues on the ascent. The weather stayed nice all morning and it was just a little breezy on top. After a long 8 hours of climbing uphill we had the entire group on the summit of Kilimanjaro. We only spent about 20 minutes on top before heading back to high camp. Where we spent about an hour eating, drinking, and getting things packed up and have all safely descended down to our last camp of the climb.

Tomorrow is hot showers and clean clothes, then we’re off to safari!

RMI Guide Casey Grom

On The Map

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Ready for Summit Bid

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 16, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 15,000'

We’re at high camp!

It was another beautiful morning and the team made good time to our high camp which sits just over 15,000’. We have just finished our summit talk to make sure we are all prepared for tomorrow.  Everyone is feeling well and looking forward to tonight’s climb. We’ll be up early and the goal is to be walking at 1 a.m. If all things go according to plan, then we should reach the summit sometime around 8 in the morning.

We had another trivia challenge that will allow the winner a one minute call from the summit. So, if you live in Texas and your nick name is “ZuZu” keep your phone handy. And remember Texas is 9 hours behind.

That’s all for now. We’ll try to call from the top.

Wish us luck!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

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Kilimanjaro: Team Ascends the Great Barranco Wall

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 15, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 13,000'

We enjoyed tea in our tents just before 7 am and had another enjoyable breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs and toast. We then hit the trail shortly after 8 and made good time up the Barranco wall. This wall is about 1,000’ high and is the steepest part of the entire climb requiring hands in a few places to assist us up a few steep steps. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and change of the new terrain. It was amazing to watch the porters easily navigate this terrain with their loads carefully balanced on their heads. We made good time and arrived in a little over 4 hours to our new home sitting at just over 13,000’.
We are incredibly thankfully to all of our porters and crew who have been working so hard to keep us well feed and comfortable thus far.
Looking forward to moving to our high camp tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew.

On The Map

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Reach the Great Barranco Wall

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 14, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 12,800'

All is well here on Kilimanjaro!

Day three took us from the Shira Plateau all the way over to the Great Barranco Wall. All in all we traveled about six miles, climbed up to about 15,000’ and descended back down to 13,000’. We traversed under the southern side of the mountain where there are still hanging glaciers to see. Unfortunately the clouds obscured the view, but did allow for some nice hiking temperatures. It took the team about seven hours total to reach camp. We hike for about an hour then take a short 15 minute break, then repeat.

The team is amazed and very thankful to our wonderful support crew who leave camp after us each day then race ahead to have camp rebuilt waiting our arrival.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Arrive in Shira Camp

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 13, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 12,200'

Day 2 greeted us with clear skies and beautiful views of the upper mountain. The day starts with “morning tea” delivered to our tents at 6:30 followed by a medium tub of warm washing water. The team did great getting ready and we made it out of camp right at 8 am. Today is one of the shorter legs being just under three miles all total, however we ascended a little over 2,000’ getting to camp. We stopped about half way for the nice sit-down lunch that our staff had ran ahead and prepared. Clearly we are being spoiled! But this is vacation after all.

It took a little over six hours to get to Camp 2. Its called Shira Camp because it sits atop the massive Shira Plateau at just over 12,200’ and overlooks the Great Rift Valley below.

Everyone is doing well and are looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

Hakuna matata!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Start Their Climb to Machame Camp

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 12, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 9,800'

We caught our first views of Kilimanjaro today while on our two-hour drive to the park gate. Looming in the distance it was almost mistaken as a cloud. We spent about an hour getting checked in and all of our gear weighed. All in all there are 55 porters, guides, cooks, waiters and camp crew bringing our group total to 66. The majority of folks are porters who are carrying much of our gear, fresh food and most importantly fresh ground coffee!

The first day always feels like the toughest as we try to get into the swing of things and find our legs under us. The team did great today and made good time from about 6000’ up to 10,000’ in about six miles. It took a little over five hours and thankfully didn’t rain on us. We have just finished a well cooked meal with curried vegetables, fried chicken breast, potatoes and a nice slice of cake for dessert. Bellies are full and everyone is in their tent getting ready for some well deserved sleep.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

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